1. Field Of The Invention
This invention relates to an aid for use in the feeding of the sheet material, and more particularly relates to the feeding of laundry flatwork such as sheets, table cloths, and the like to laundry processing equipment such as an ironer.
2. Background Art
The use of feeding apparatus for assisting in the feeding of flatwork such as sheets to laundry processing apparatus such as ironers is well known in the laundry art.
Among the various feeding devices of the prior art are Weir U.S. Pat. No. 3,421,756 directed to a laundry feeding machine which is composed of a plurality of moving mechanisms. This patent discloses the use of clamp pairs for engaging the opposed corners of a sheet leading edge, spreading such clamps apart, advancing such sheet edge over a conveyor, and releasing the sheet leading edge onto the underlying conveyor.
Weir U.S. Pat. No. 3,729,846 discloses sheet corner-engaging clamps, and means for moving the clamps apart in combination with air-blast means for blowing a released sheet forwardly into an underlying conveyor.
Kamberg U.S. Pat. No. 3,736,678 assigned to the assignee of the subject application is directed to a feeder apparatus employing spreading brushes and vacuum boxes to assist in feeding a substantially wrinkle-free sheet onto a feed conveyor.
Olsen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 31,453 is directed to laundry feeding apparatus employing pairs of transverse clamps arranged over a feed conveyor and which are attachable to corners of a sheet or the like. The clamps apply desired tension on the sheet leading edge and position the same relative to a feed conveyor.
Holmes et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,143,476 is directed to a laundry arranging device for transporting laundry items to laundry ironing equipment. The device includes spaced clamping heads attached to continuous chains for engaging a sheet leading edge whereafter a feeder device picks off the laundry item from the releasable clamps.
Weir U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,326 is directed to laundry handling apparatus employing a movable article clamp operated by fluid pressure which is valved in a particular manner whereby an article engaged by the clamp is released at a discharge station whereat the pressure in the clamp means is released.
None of these prior art references discloses the simple feeding aid of this invention composed of at least two groups of pivotal clamping wheels and associated actuating means. The prior art feeding devices are normally more complicated and expensive, and as a result more subject to malfunction than the feeding aid hereinafter described in greater detail.
It is an object of this invention therefore to provide a simple clamping aid which may be readily retrofitted into already existing ironers or folders or incorporated into new ironers, ironer-folders or folders or arranged in discrete feeding devices for the latter.
It is another object of this invention to provide a simple feeding aid which employs two stationary feeding stations having a minimum number of simple moving parts.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a feeding aid for laundry flatwork which is flexible in operation and enables the feeding of large sheets with a single operator, or similarly efficiently functions with two sheet feeding operators for feeding laundry flatwork to an ironer or the like.